The selection, separation and sowing of tiny seeds is now being performed manually. This is a tedious, back-breaking, and time-consuming procedure, which usually also involves involuntarily sowing multiple seeds instead of one per hole. Such a troublesome procedure is wasteful of expensive seeds. It also results in the growth of undesired multiple plants that require pruning. Also, after manually dropping a tiny seed into the furrow, it becomes invisible and therefore cannot be properly covered with the required soil layer, typically 1/8" in thickness.
Most known mechanical seeders have a funnel tube tapered into a spike adapted to penetrate into the soil. Experience shows that the spike frequently becomes plugged up with soil and must be unplugged. The known seeders are for relatively larger seeds, such as corn and the like, and they cannot be readily adapted for sowing very tiny seeds. They require manual seed handling which is not very practical mainly because the selection, separation and propulsion of very tiny seeds cannot be done with a finger. When a finger touches a mass of seeds, it attracts several of them, especially under humid conditions, and for that reason individual seed planting is virtually impossible. Also, if a tiny seed were to be dropped through the funnel's spike into the soil, it would become deposited too deep and at the bottom of the hole made by the spike. Such a seed is likely to rot.
Thus, because the known prior art seeders are not capable of dealing with the problems created when sowing tiny seeds, there has been a long-felt need for a seeder which would allow to sow mini seeds, one at a time, very close to and underneath the earth's surface, and to space them a uniform distance apart in the furrow in order to grow rows of individual plants that are substantially uniformly spaced apart.
Accordingly, it is a main object of this invention to provide a new and unique approach to solving mini seed sowing problems which, although heretofore recognized, have not been effectively addressed.
It is a further object to provide a simple, and yet very effective mini seeder, which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, which is simple to use, and which allows to selectively separate, dispense, and direct to a desired soil location a single tiny seed.